There are currently more than twenty-five million citizens in the United States who are temporarily or permanently totally disabled. These people reside in nursing homes, hospitals, rehabilitation facilities or in homes where they are totally dependent upon the care of others for their survival. Most of these millions of disabled persons are bladder and/or bowel incontinent and are forced to wear diapers or comparable items to contain their urine and excreta. Many of these people suffer from Alzheimers disease or other dementia and are unable to assist or only partially assist in their own care or handling.
Many are confined to bed unless removed from their beds by attending persons. The typical method of removing a disabled person from a bed is to raise the disabled person to a sitting position, rotate the patient to a sitting position on the side of the bed and with an attendant under each arm and an attendant standing and facing the patient, stand or pick the patient up and then turn and lower the patient into a chair, wheelchair, geriatric chair, or on to some other conveying mechanism.
In a typical nursing home, hospital, rehabilitation facility or in the home environment, the disabled incontinent person must have diaper changes at least every two hours and possibly several times an hour for hygiene, as well as prevention of skin irritation and prevention of bed sores. To accomplish a diaper change for any purpose, it is necessary for the attendants to take the disabled person to a bed, lift the disabled person from the wheelchair, geriatric chair, or other seating arrangement, place the person on the bed, change the diaper, and reverse the procedure to return the disabled person to the original seating arrangement. The result of physically handling disabled persons is that many older people sustain spontaneous bone fractures, muscle and ligament pulls or tears, or pain solely from the physical handling and lifting. Another direct consequence of the existing practice outlined above is that the attendants suffer high incidents of injuries to their backs, muscles or ligaments as a result of physically lifting disabled persons from sitting positions onto beds and returning them to their sitting positions. This consequence usually requires that institutions pay the highest workman's compensation insurance rates, and are required to hire additional attendants to perform the lifting and handling of disabled persons. In the home environment the consequence is that the disabled person is essentially confined to bed.
Thus, the problem is that millions of disabled persons in institutions or at home are being moved from beds to chairs or other appliances by the physical strength of their attendants with resulting injuries both to the patient and attendants; or the patient is never or seldom moved from the bed, with resulting bed sores, bad hygiene and circulatory problems. Such problems have greatly increased the cost of care of disabled persons through high insurance costs, additional labor, injuries and litigation.
Heretofore, a combined chair and gurney has been provided. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,587,068 dated Feb. 26, 1952 shows a combined chair and gurney which is convertible from a chair to a gurney at the same height as a bed or operating table for transfer if desired. A frame supporting the patient is mounted for pivotal movement between various positions on a lower support frame mounted between wheels or casters. The seat supporting the patient remains in a horizontal position at all times and can not be inclined. Also, side frames are not provided alongside the seat at all times for support of the patient.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,147,039 dated Sep. 1, 1964 likewise shows a combined wheelchair and gurney which is convertible for transport of a patient either in a sitting or lying position. A pair of side frames are provided to support a linkage for converting the transportation of a patient between a sitting position and a lying position. The back seat frame and the leg seat frame are both connected to and supported by the opposed side frames, and the seat frame remains positioned horizontally at all times.